Clearly even the writers of Platinum End realised that Saki couldn’t continue to simply be as useful as a piece of furniture as they have the character herself admit that she’s just been baggage in episode 8 of Platinum End.
But is a character being aware that they are pointless and boring enough to justify having had the character do nothing for so long?
More than that, is having a sudden realisation, declaring you still want to die, changing your mind, and then suddenly being filled with excessive pep and enthusiasm for the mission all in the space of twenty minutes actually work as a character arc? I’m going to say no.
Platinum End continues to flail along.
Basically, Platinum End tries to give Saki a significant character moment but due to no one caring about her character up to this point, the speed at which it is delivered, and the fact that it is about as nuanced as a brick hitting the audience in the face, largely this whole episode falls flat.
Unless you really like laughing at the angels and their commentary. Nasse gets a few decent lines this week and even Revel made me smile once or twice.
So let’s break down this episode.
Basically, Metropoliman’s human friend/hanger-on realises from his injury that he’s probably Metropoliman. This leads to about three seconds of potential tension as he considers his next steps. Then he does a Miko from Mieruko-Chan and decides to simply pretend he noticed nothing.
Now, this works in Mieruko-Chan as its the central gag of a supernatural comedy that the main character is ignoring the ghosts. It works significantly less well here as it diffuses any tension the scene may have had and to be honest this was about the most engaging moment in this supposedly psychological drama that we got this week.
Though, Platinum End is unlikely to care that they shot their own tension in the foot. It’s too busy setting up the next absurdity which is having Saki ask Mirai to come lie in her bed so she can talk to him. Because that’s a perfectly normal thing to ask and a normal way to go about it.
Cue the childhood flashback sequence and the angsty self-loathing as we finally find out just why Saki wanted to die.
I will admit that I wasn’t expecting the connection to Mirai’s own suicide attempt, but one minor point of interest in all of this isn’t really enough to salvage the rest of this episode.
After Saki admits she still wants to die, Mirai decides to test this out and naturally the best way to do that is to go for a night flight and see if Saki takes the plunge. Forget the fact that they might be seen and identified as god candidates by the psycho who wants to kill them all. And in case I thought that maybe Platinum End wanted me to take this scene seriously, we’ve got the two angels foregrounded with Nasse poking fun at Revel for his choice in candidate.
Naturally though this whole sequence somehow causes Saki to get over herself, she asks Mirai to forgive her, which he being the non-entity he is says there’s nothing to forgive because he was never angry. Then it all jumps to Saki becoming miss get-up-and-go planning a new base for the group to meet in and to work from as her bedroom is really too small for three people and three angels.
I mean, I guess it is a way for Platinum End to advance the plot and finally have Saki do something other than sit around and chew-up scenery. But really that’s all this episode feels like. It genuinely feels like someone told the writer Saki was boring and so they wrote a stand alone plot that just kind of over-turned the character and gave them an entirely new personality by the end.
On that note, it didn’t make me like Saki any more and given the rest of the plot just kind of paused for this there’s little going on in episode 8 that feels like it matters.
The full review for Platinum End Episodes 1 – 12 can be found here.
Images from: Platinum End. Dir. K Kise. Signal MD. 2021
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Karandi James
Hmmm… If Saki wanted to die, they could have used that as a plot element. Have her do something suicidal to help put down Metropiliman. Mirai then risks his life to save her. Now they both know they love each other. Him showing her how much he cares for her now gives her a reason to live.
I know it is a tired old trope but it makes more sense than what happened.
Tired old tropes became tired and old because they at least work (and if done with some conviction can be quite entertaining). And yes, what happened here makes little sense and wasn’t very interesting.